Things You Didn't Know, Episode 1: Petroleum

Series Introduction: I'm constantly amazed by "what we don't know." I don't mean as humankind, I mean as everyday people. I think about stuff like this on my way to and from work, every day, and have decided to share with the Bullshido community. I have a few topics picked out, but gasoline usage has been on my mind, recently.

Please forgive (and correct) any math errors. Some of these numbers get quite large or quite small, and are difficult to deal with. I intend to refrain from the usage of exponential notation in this series.

Without further ado, Episode 1: Petroleum.

1) Let's say you got a brand-spanking new truck, like I did earlier in the year. Let's say you average 16 miles per gallon, city/suburb driving. A "pipeline," holding that much gas would be 1 mile long, and just over 1 millimeter in circumference. 1 millimeter is about the width of a thick sheet of cardstock, or possibly your fingernail. (source: any cylinder volume calculator, and your vehicle's EPA rating)

3) There's this nifty thing called Colonial Pipeline. It's a pair of pipes running 5,500 miles from Houston, TX, to Linden, NJ. The pipes are 40 inches (gasoline) and 36 inches (a mix of diesel, kerosene, etc.). If the gasoline pipe is full, that equates to about 1,900,000,000,000 gallons. If the "other," pipeline is full, that equates to about 1,500,000,000,000 gallons.

4) Current domestic gasoline usage (USA) is about 385,000,000 gallons per day - roughly 1.2 gallons per capita. At that rate, assuming Colonial Pipeline is full, and only the gasoline pipe, we have about 14 years of gasoline already refined and in transit to distributors. EIA.gov is a little ambiguous on this point, I don't really know if consumption is just gasoline, or all petroleum distillates: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=23&t=10

5) Diesel is currently less expensive, in many US locales, and on average contains about 30% more energy by volume than the gasoline we use in our "regular unleaded," vehicles.

Series Introduction: I'm constantly amazed by "what we don't know." I don't mean as humankind, I mean as everyday people. I think about stuff like this on my way to and from work, every day, and have decided to share with the Bullshido community. I have a few topics picked out, but gasoline usage has been on my mind, recently.

Please forgive (and correct) any math errors. Some of these numbers get quite large or quite small, and are difficult to deal with. I intend to refrain from the usage of exponential notation in this series.

Without further ado, Episode 1: Petroleum.

1) Let's say you got a brand-spanking new truck, like I did earlier in the year. Let's say you average 16 miles per gallon, city/suburb driving. A "pipeline," holding that much gas would be 1 mile long, and just over 1 millimeter in circumference. 1 millimeter is about the width of a thick sheet of cardstock, or possibly your fingernail. (source: any cylinder volume calculator, and your vehicle's EPA rating)

3) There's this nifty thing called Colonial Pipeline. It's a pair of pipes running 5,500 miles from Houston, TX, to Linden, NJ. The pipes are 40 inches (gasoline) and 36 inches (a mix of diesel, kerosene, etc.). If the gasoline pipe is full, that equates to about 1,900,000,000,000 gallons. If the "other," pipeline is full, that equates to about 1,500,000,000,000 gallons.

4) Current domestic gasoline usage (USA) is about 385,000,000 gallons per day - roughly 1.2 gallons per capita. At that rate, assuming Colonial Pipeline is full, and only the gasoline pipe, we have about 14 years of gasoline already refined and in transit to distributors. EIA.gov is a little ambiguous on this point, I don't really know if consumption is just gasoline, or all petroleum distillates: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=23&t=10

5) Diesel is currently less expensive, in many US locales, and on average contains about 30% more energy by volume than the gasoline we use in our "regular unleaded," vehicles.

For sure there is no shortage of oil of various types or natural gas in the world.

Helium, though...

Falling for Judo since 1980

"You are wrong. Why? Because you move like a pregnant yak and talk like a spazzing 'I train UFC' noob." -DCS

"The best part of getting you worked up is your backpack full of irony and lies." -It Is Fake

"Banning BKR is like kicking a Quokka. It's foolishness of the first order." - Raycetpfl

For sure there is no shortage of oil of various types or natural gas in the world.

Helium, though...

All kinds of medical and scientific and industrial uses. Not a **** ton of it here on earth. It kinda just leaks out. Very hard to recapture or recycle. The moon supposedly has crap tons of it tho. It seriously might be the first real push at industrializing the solar system. Helium from the moon.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is an excellent book. The first A.I. awakes in the middle of this **** starts trying to figure out funny.

I wonder about the human race some times.

“I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out.”
BILL HICKS,
1961-1994

Originally Posted by Jean Paula-Satire

Never believe that the GOP and fellow bigots are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The bigots and Republicans have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past and that besides, they have already won

For sure there is no shortage of oil of various types or natural gas in the world.

Helium, though...

As well as renewable ways of making oil. Such as algae & bacteria.

Of the single rapier fight between valiant men, having both skill, he that is the best wrestler, or if neither of them can wrestle, the strongest man most commonly kills the other, or leaves him at his mercy.
–George Silver, Paradoxes of Defence

Not yet, but they are the real answer, you can make the same fuels out of them and use most of the same infrastructure. Cost just needs to come down, which will happen. Given the 2 billion cars on the planet we cannot move away from gas.

Originally Posted by BKR

considering the supplies we already have in the ground.

That is the problem that is still the most economical way of doing things.

Originally Posted by BKR

What we need is a way to sequester CO2, or convert it to something useful in the volumes it would be produced and/or taken out of the atmosphere.

That is the way bio-fuels work.

Of the single rapier fight between valiant men, having both skill, he that is the best wrestler, or if neither of them can wrestle, the strongest man most commonly kills the other, or leaves him at his mercy.
–George Silver, Paradoxes of Defence

Not yet, but they are the real answer, you can make the same fuels out of them and use most of the same infrastructure. Cost just needs to come down, which will happen. Given the 2 billion cars on the planet we cannot move away from gas.

That is the problem that is still the most economical way of doing things.

That is the way bio-fuels work.

They would have to essentially carbon tax or outlaw or severely restrict, one way or another, using "dirty" hydrocarbons for fuel. And get the rest of the world to agree to do so.

There are just too many of them left in the ground.

Falling for Judo since 1980

"You are wrong. Why? Because you move like a pregnant yak and talk like a spazzing 'I train UFC' noob." -DCS

"The best part of getting you worked up is your backpack full of irony and lies." -It Is Fake

"Banning BKR is like kicking a Quokka. It's foolishness of the first order." - Raycetpfl